The first NPI rankings were published Tuesday, meaning we have our first glimpse of the at-large picture from the NCAA’s perspective. For those who live under a rock, the NCAA as an organization has transitioned all sports to use the NPI model in regard to their individual championships. In the past, the NCAA Regional Rankings used to be the only rankings that mattered; this is no longer the case. We are in the era of NPI now, coaches and players alike would be best suited to learn how it works.
Of the 128 teams in DIII men’s volleyball, the table below shows those with the 20 highest NPI scores as of 3/09/2025.
| Team | Conference | NPI Rank | NPI |
| NYU | UVC | 1 | 66.523 |
| Juniata | CVC | 2 | 63.868 |
| Messiah | Middle Atlantic | 3 | 62.982 |
| Stevens | Middle Atlantic | 4 | 62.76 |
| Springfield | DIII Independent | 5 | 62.604 |
| Southern Va. | CVC | 6 | 62.566 |
| Carthage | CCIW | 7 | 62.164 |
| Vassar | UVC | 8 | 61.822 |
| Cal Lutheran | DIII Independent | 9 | 60.816 |
| Aurora | NACC | 10 | 59.923 |
| St. John Fisher | UVC | 11 | 59.453 |
| Wentworth | Great Northeast | 12 | 59.267 |
| Hobart | UVC | 13 | 58.693 |
| Loras | CCIW | 14 | 58.216 |
| North Central (IL) | CCIW | 15 | 56.926 |
| UC Santa Cruz | DIII Independent | 16 | 56.624 |
| Misericordia | Middle Atlantic | 17 | 56.515 |
| Stevenson | Middle Atlantic | 18 | 56.443 |
| Lasell | Great Northeast | 19 | 55.983 |
| SUNY New Paltz | UVC | 20 | 55.618 |
Below you can find a link to a video discussing how NPI works in greater detail.
We now have a definitive list of schools we can start constructing a possible post-season around, which is very exciting. This leads us to our first bracketology segment of the 2024 season. Unlike years past, NPI makes it incredibly easy to project a field, removing much of the guesswork I used to have to do. In that regard, it’s an improvement over the previous system in my book.
This year, 19 teams will be eligible for the NCAA Tournament, the largest to date. 14 teams will be win automatic bids from their conference championships (former Pool A bids). One of the big changes to tournament selection this year is the removal of the Pool B (formerly independent schools) and Pool C at large bids. From now on all schools who don’t receive an AQ from their conference are put into the same pool for at-large consideration. The schools with the five highest NPI scores from that pool will be the at-large bids for the tournament.
Using our T100 system, below you will find the schools with the highest probability of winning their conference tournament selected as the 14 automatic qualifiers. As is the case every year, I’d be shocked if all of these teams won their conference championship. Every year there are upsets, so don’t think your school is safe simply because your listed below.
AMCC: Buffalo State
CCIW: Carthage
CVC: Southern Virginia
CUNY: Baruch
United East: Lancaster Bible
GNAC: Wentworth
MAC: Stevens
MCVL: Baldwin Wallace
NEVC: Nichols
NACC: Aurora
Skyline: St. Joseph – Long Island
UVC: NYU
ODAC: Randolph Macon
PAC: Thiel
Removing the above teams from the at-large pool, the following five schools currently have the remaining highest NPI score. This would make them this year’s 5 at-large selections to round out the NCAA Tournament.
At-Large Selections as of 3/09/2025
1. Juniata
2. Messiah
3. Springfield
4. Vassar
5. Cal Lutheran
A caveat to all who are reading, this field is based on the data we had as of 3/09, when the first NPI data was calculated and released. NPI is a continually changing number based on games being played, and a team’s NPI score is in flux up until the final game is played in early April. There are tons of consequential games left to (SVU vs Juniata tonight and Cal Lutheran vs UCSC later this month are prime examples) which could change the projected field immensely. In short, the above list of tournament teams isn’t final and will most likely change once all matches are set and done.